According to QA Manager Adam Williamson, Fedora 16, code-named "Verne", had a record number of composes, compared to previous versions. A compose is any kind of alpha, beta, release candidate or other test release made in the process of developing the final release. Williamson says the higher number of these releases "mostly reflects the fact that F16 makes major changes in very release sensitive areas, but also I think that we're getting better at detecting problems and resolving them as blockers and hence driving up the quality of Fedora releases."

The golden master version of Fedora 16 will now be distributed to all of the project's official mirrors; it will be officially released on Tuesday, 8 November 2011.